


the calm that follows (wait for the next storm)

by Suicix



Category: Professional Wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Alternate Universe, Established Relationship, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Multi, Vigilantism, more like: attempts at being vigilantes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-18
Updated: 2015-07-18
Packaged: 2018-04-10 00:53:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4370972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Suicix/pseuds/Suicix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When your boyfriends seem to think they're part of some kind of vigilante squad, all there is to do when they get home hurt is to care. So, that's what Wade does.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the calm that follows (wait for the next storm)

The front door clatters open, breaking the almost silence of the apartment. Wade straightens up a little, waiting. The murmuring he can hear from the hallway sounds fine, normal, so there’s no need to go and see... though it _is_ taking his boyfriends a rather long time to get through to the lounge.

He stands, just in case something is actually up, but just as he does, Heath and Drew emerge from the hall, and – well.

It’s not exactly their usual bursting in through a door, shining and excited: they’ve got their arms slung over each other’s shoulders and Heath is... limping? Wade frowns and closes the gap between himself and the two of them.

“What happened?” he asks, getting one of Heath’s arms over his shoulder so it’s easier to get him to the couch.

Heath just shrugs as Wade and Drew get him sat down. “We, uh. We ran into some trouble on the way back.”

Drew scoffs and rolls his eyes. “More like you ran into someone’s car and ended up flying almost headfirst over the hood of the car onto the ground,” he says, but it’s fond.

“What?” Wade’s eyes widen just a little. “You didn’t damage it, did you? How do you even manage to do that in the first place?”

“I couldn’t see it! It was dark, I was... I was running, and it was some tiny sports car, OK?” Heath exclaims. “And whoever owns it had like – parked it in the middle of the sidewalk! I mean, what the fuck is that?”

“Maybe that’s the kind of petty crimes you guys should be stopping – illegally parked cars, not trying to take out gangs or whatever it is you’re actually attempting to do. You wouldn’t be tripping over parked cars if you did that.”

“Oh, but I think he would,” Drew says, and Heath glares at him.

“I just want you both to be safe.” Wade sits down next to Heath on the sofa and squeezes Heath’s shoulder. Drew drops down on Wade’s other side, and Wade turns to him. “You’re all right though, aren’t you?” he asks, and Drew nods – though he winces when Wade gives his arm a pat.

“Think Heath’s the one in more dire need of medical attention, though,” he says when Wade frowns at him, and then he smirks. “Even if he did just basically walk into and then subsequently fall over a car. A stationary car.”

“Not gonna let me let that go, are you?” Heath sighs and leans back against the couch. “It was just _there_! I couldn’t help it.”

“I’m only joking.” Drew leans over Wade to kiss Heath on the cheek before standing. “You know I am. I’m gonna take a shower, OK?”

“Yeah, all right.” Wade turns to Heath. “Let’s take a look at your leg. I’ll see what I can do.” He pushes the coffee table closer to the couch to better prop Heath’s leg up on it, and finds what he hopes will make up adequate enough of a first aid kit in a kitchen cabinet before coming back to the living room and kneeling by the coffee table.

When Wade attempts to pull up the trouser leg, Heath flinches.

“You OK?”

“Yeah, just – _fuck_.”

“It hurts that much?” Wade stops, just looks up at him, concerned.

Heath just shrugs. “Don’t worry about it, just pull it up. Or it’s gonna get worse.”

Wade tries, but it takes time. He knew there’d be blood sticking the fabric to skin, but not that it’d be this bad.

“Shit,” he mutters, looking at the graze, the blood. He doesn’t sugar-coat things, though. Never has, never will. He refuses to. “That’s... that’s really nasty, love. Are you sure this is just from falling over because you, uh... apparently didn’t see someone’s car, or...?”

“Yeah,” Heath mumbles, easily flushing red. “Who else could do that but me, huh?”

“Hey, I didn’t mean it like that.” Wade pats the knee on the uninjured leg. “What did you fall on, just concrete?”

“Yeah. But it was like – I sorta just flipped over it, y’know, and I didn’t wanna fall on my head or my back or whatever, so I just tried to make sure I didn’t. So I focused it all on my leg, see, and...”

Oh _God_. Wade needs to get Heath’s mind off the fall itself.

“What were you doing before this happened, anyway? You said this was on the way back. What was tonight’s, like – actual goal?”

“We were investigating. I think...” – Heath lowers his voice – “I think that gang, yeah? The one we’ve never seen pop up in the news or anywhere? The _Shield_ or whatever the hell they call themselves? I reckon they’re working for local government.”

Wade blinks at him. Heath sounds very serious about it. He’s always doing this: latching onto some farfetched theory he comes up with and running with it, refusing to let it go.

“How did you come up with that one?” Wade asks. He frowns down at Heath’s leg. “I think we’re gonna need to clean this before we can do anything else with it. We’ll have to wait for Drew to come out of the bathroom to do it properly though, but we can start now.”

Heath nods, a little impatiently. Not impatient for Wade to collect what he needs to clean up the wound, but impatient to share what he thinks about this _Shield_.

“So,” he says, his tone probably more dark and dramatic than it needs to be, his eyes blazing, “other than the couple of times we’ve – uh, run into them, I ain’t ever heard about them. Anywhere! Ever! How come they’ve never been seen, huh? How come they’ve never been seen at all?”

“Maybe they’re just good at what they do,” Wade suggests with a shrug as he gently presses a washcloth to the injury. “You should report it if you see them again. See what happens then, and if anything’s done about it you’ll know–”

“But what if it’s not!” Heath interrupts him, and Wade has to tighten his hold on Heath’s leg so he stays still. “What if it really is some kinda inside job, a conspiracy, a–”

“Don’t tell me you’re on about that Shield _again_.” Drew has returned from the shower now, a towel around his waist and another one draped over his shoulders so his damp hair doesn’t drip everywhere. “I thought we were gonna let that go.”

“But they’re suspicious! And the government’s suspicious too! They’re all bein’ suspicious together.”

“I recommend you report them if you ever come across them again,” Wade explains to Drew. “I know the police in this city are everything but useful, but there might be a news piece or something. That should help you figure it out.”

“I still don’t think there’s much _to_ figure out,” Drew says, sitting down next to Heath on the couch. We’ll see what happens, but I don’t know.” His attention turns to Heath’s leg wound. He looks a little startled. “Holy fuck. I didn’t think that would look as bad as it does.”

“Pretty bad, huh? Your arm OK?”

Wade looks to Drew, alarmed. He could tell Drew was in pain earlier, but he didn’t realise anything significant had happened to it.

“It’s feeling better, but still a little stiff, you get me? I don’t think it has anything on your leg, though. Christ.”

“Your arm?” Wade wonders. “What did you do to it? You’re all in the bloody wars tonight – Jinder’s OK, isn’t he? Not injured like the two of you?”

“Got it slammed against a brick wall in an alley. We’re walking by, and we hear – I don’t know if you could call it a fight, but there was definitely some sort of minor commotion going on so we thought we’d take a look. Some guys arguing over turf or something like that. Whatever. It’s a fucking alleyway, for God’s sake,” Drew tells him. “And Jinder’s fine.”

“Of course he is,” Wade mutters. “It’s always you two getting hurt. Always one of you or both of you. I think I liked it better when you three tried to form a band.”

“Even though it was so loud?” Heath asks. Clearly he remembers Wade’s complaints about volume from back then. There were a lot.

“Even though it was so loud, yes,” Wade confirms. “So loud, and you didn’t even have a drummer. I don’t know how you managed that. But at least I knew you were _safe_ –”

“We are safe,” says Drew. “We’re here with you.”

“Hm.” Wade finishes cleaning out the wound the best he can. “So what you’re saying is you’re planning to hide behind me if some gang you interfere with comes knocking for you?”

“They should be the ones to hide from you,” Heath mumbles, and Wade shakes his head.

“Look. I’m sorry. But I’m not going to join you in your... crime fighting or whatever you want to call it. I can’t... I don’t know... I don’t know what it would do to me.” He looks back up at them, trying to cast those thoughts away. “After all, who would be here to patch you up if I did?” Wade smiles and moves up from the floor to the couch. “I do worry about this. I worry about it quite a lot. But I know you’re doing something you believe in, something you think is for the best even if you’re not... always totally successful at it. Maybe you’ll get bored of it like you got bored of most of your other... _endeavours_ , and maybe you won’t. But I’m behind you, yeah?”

“Yeah,” says Heath, and Drew nods.

“We know.”

It’s a little surprising, the way they just suddenly – catapult onto Wade, arms tight around him, both of their hair getting in his face as they hug him. Wade relaxes into it once he’s past the initial shock, the unexpectedness of the embrace. They definitely know he’s behind them, there for them. And in a way they’re telling him that they’re there for him too in whatever he chooses. It’s just a big bundle of limbs, basically, and Wade thinks he could get used to it until Heath whines about his leg again – it’s getting squashed, like this – and immediately they move so he’s in a position that’s better for it.

“Think I’m gonna go clean it out properly, y’know? Get some bandages on it,” he says, starting to stand.

“You want our help?” asks Drew, but Heath shakes his head.

“Nah, I can do it myself. I’ll call you if I need it, though,” he tells them, and he hobbles into the bathroom.

They don’t help him – wouldn’t unless he called, knowing he wouldn’t want them to unless he did.

When he comes back, he’s covered up the wound with dressings – more than a little messily done, but still effective enough. He squeezes his way between Wade and Drew on the sofa, both of them careful not to agitate the injury at all.

Now that he feels like he can, Wade mentally breathes out. They’re here, they’re home, they’re safe, and they’re happy. They’re not too seriously hurt, either, and from what they’re telling him now, it seems they actually managed to be somewhat effective in their aims tonight. Not investigating the mysterious Shield, but generally just watching out for the things they think they need to.

Eventually the chatter dies down as they finish telling tonight’s tales. Heath moves to sprawl out on the other side of Wade, leaning down to rest his head in Wade’s lap, his leg out across the coffee table again, and Drew shifts along the seat to where Heath was so he can lean into Wade’s shoulder, quiet – some peace before the next storm.

Wade just hopes they won’t get too caught up in the lightning.


End file.
